The Steel Dragon (Steel Dragons Series Book 2)

by Kevin McLaughlin

  No one could say no to that. Even Drew—who was less than enthusiastic about doing anything in any way that wasn’t according to protocol—had to admit this could help break down barriers between humans and dragons.

  Hastily, they finished their beers and got to work.

  They drove to her old job, Detroit SWAT Headquarters. It was after hours, so Captain Hansen wouldn’t be there. There would no doubt be hell to pay in the morning when she found out she had come into her office without permission, but in the meantime, they had the office to themselves.

  As they made their way to one of the computer systems, some of her old coworkers waved hello. She’d been closest to her own team, of course, but it was nice to see there was still goodwill toward her.

  “So, any idea what this bitch’s name is?” Hernandez asked and peered over Keith’s shoulder as he settled at a terminal.

  “I haven’t a clue. I have footage of her face, though, and hoped we could do something with that.”

  “No problem.” The Rookie took her proffered phone, plugged it into the system, and found the footage before she could even point it out to him. He isolated an image of the assassin’s face and ran it through the facial recognition software.

  After a few minutes, they found absolutely nothing.

  “Did it come as a surprise to anyone that this team of anti-dragon freedom fighters is smart enough to avoid having their mugshots taken?” Hernandez asked rhetorically.

  Kristen tried to hide her disappointment. She supposed it made sense that the woman had never revealed herself to law authorities, but that would definitely make their job that much more difficult.

  “What’s the plan, then?” Drew asked.

  “Can you get into the closed-circuit security cameras we have around the city?” Hernandez asked Keith. “Because if you can’t, get out of the pilot’s seat.”

  “Is that legal?” Butters asked.

  Keith shrugged. “We are operating well outside of human law right now. Technically, it’s not illegal to kill a dragon either.”

  “But spying on the whole city?” the sniper protested.

  “Every company that installed these cameras and connected them to the Internet could have done a better job securing their systems. It’s like we don’t investigate car robberies if the driver says the door was unlocked, you know?” His fingers flew over the keys and only paused when Hernandez told him he’d made a mistake.

  “I’m not worried about the rights of the people who own the cameras but the people whose faces are on these systems,” Butters persisted.

  “We live in a surveillance state, Butters. Have you never heard of Homeland security? Besides, every single one of us has a phone in our pocket. Most of those damn things are voice-activated.” Jim held up his own phone to illustrate his point.

  Kristen didn’t really care about any of that. She wanted to stop a murderer. “Is it working?”

  “Yeah.” The Rookie pushed his chair back. “But it’ll take a while and even then, it might not work. Cameras would have to have caught her face, and the system needs to find that piece of footage.”

  “How long?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “An hour? A day?”

  “Tell us more about this case, Kristen. How the hell did this dragon get killed anyway?” Drew asked.

  “Because she killed Windfire with a handgun.”

  Jim nodded—he was well versed in dragon culture since he was one of its harshest critics—but the rest of her team looked confused.

  Hernandez summed it up for the rest of them. “People get shot by handguns every damn day in this country and no one gives a shit. What’s the big deal about a dragon getting popped?”

  “Because it shouldn’t be possible,” she stated. “Dragon scale should deflect bullets from a handgun with no problem. That means these bullets are made of dragon.”

  Jim sucked his teeth in concern. “But you were shot by a dragon bullet by Death. How’s this different?”

  “Because I don’t think a dragon is behind this. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if Death got her bullets from this organization or one like it. If dragons made these weapons, it would cause a shift in power in their society, but if people are making them, then—”

  “This could start a war,” the Wonderkid said.

  “How’s that?” Butters asked.

  “Think about it,” Drew interjected. “Humans have been allowed to remain free and largely not interfered with by dragons precisely because the dragons feel impervious to harm from humans.”

  “They look down on us.” Jim scowled. “Worse than that. They don’t even bother looking at us. We’re like cattle to the mean ones and like pets to the good ones.”

  “That’s right. What a good boy,” Kristen said and patted him on his shaved head.

  “Not you, Kristen. You hardly count as a dragon,” he responded.

  She smiled. That meant a lot coming from him. When she’d first met him, she was fairly certain he was trying to kill her and now, he was one of her staunchest supporters.

  Drew continued without even a small smile at the banter. “If this gets out to dragon kind at large—and if there’s another murder, I don’t see how it wouldn’t—the entire dragon attitude toward humanity might change. During the two rebellions, dragons wiped out large numbers of innocent humans while they hunted for the would-be rebels among them. They might well do so again. Or worse.” He shuddered.

  “Then we have to stop this woman before she starts a crisis the likes of which human and dragon kind have never seen,” Butters said. The gravity of the situation had finally struck him.

  “Do you think that’s her intention, Kristen?” Beanpole asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think she killed Windfire to start a war, and I don’t know if she’d want to start one at all. If dragons in general know that a group of people has targeted them, that’s the group of people they’ll try to stop, right? This woman and her people have been able to hide, but no one’s actually looked for them. I don’t know if she wants to disrupt that.”

  “Then why do any of this?” Beanpole asked.

  “I’ve been trying to make sense of it, and I’m simply not sure. I will say that she could have killed me—multiple times, in fact—and I think if she actually tried to strike fear into the hearts of the dragons or start a war, she would have killed me.”

  “Do you really think the dragons would have come to your defense?” Hernandez asked derisively. She obviously didn’t think such a thing would happen.

  In response, Kristen turned to steel. “Special powers, remember? If a human can kill me, most dragons would really be in trouble. The steel ability is…weird.” She thought back to the intruder and what she’d said to Windfire. “And the assassin seemed to know about me, too.”

  Keith turned from the screen to laugh. “Yeah, Kristen, every damn person in the world knows about you.”

  “No, it was more than that.” She rubbed her chin and tried to think how she could explain it. “It was like she knew me—or wanted to, anyway. I think she didn’t kill me because she wanted something from me.”

  “Maybe a dragon on their side,” Jim said.

  Everyone looked incredulously at him.

  “What? Don’t look at me like that. I hated dragons for years—I still do, except Kristen, of course—and there were many times I fantasized about a dragon joining the freaks and crackpots in the corners of the Internet.”

  “You fantasized about dragons while you were on the Internet?” Hernandez asked. “I didn’t know there was that kind of porn out there.”

  Everyone laughed at that.

  “So, what is your theory?” Drew asked.

  Kristen couldn’t even begin to answer. “I don’t have one—no wait, that’s not true. Honestly, I have too many. That’s why I want to catch this woman. I want to ask her a few questions.”

  Everyone grinned at that. Cop reflexes never went away.

&n
bsp; “Hey, dingus, check your search.” Hernandez slapped Keith on the arm.

  “Oh, shit!” he said and turned quickly to the computer. “We have a match.”

  The woman had left a fast food joint a few hours before, climbed into a vehicle, and driven away.

  “Why can’t we make the license plate out?” Drew asked.

  “It’s probably treated with some kind of reflective shit so the camera can’t make out the number. You can buy that shit on the Internet,” Hernandez said. When everyone turned to her and stared, she raised an eyebrow and snorted. “What? I’m the only one of us who runs red lights?”

  “Not everyone drives a hatchback like that, though. I might be able to follow it,” Keith’s fingers flew over the keys. The vantage point switched from the burger place to a traffic light camera and from there, to the security camera outside a dollar store. At that point, they almost lost her, but he found her at a red light a few blocks away. It was a lucky thing, otherwise, she might have been lost to the city. Her face had never been visible in any of this camera footage of her car.

  She drove another block, then—blessedly—pulled into the parking garage beneath a high-rise hotel.

  The Rookie hacked into the cameras in the parking garage and saw her go inside the hotel.

  “We have her,” Kristen said, hardly believing the words.

  “Almost.” Keith sounded frustrated. “I know this place has cameras in the hallways, but I can’t get in. They might not even be online.”

  “Then we do this old school,” Butters said.

  “How’s that?” Kristen asked.

  “We got to the front desk and ask for help,” Drew said.

  Chapter Twenty

  It was strangely nostalgic for Kristen to be once more riding in the back of a Detroit SWAT van. It hadn’t been that long since she’d actually been in the back of one—a couple of weeks—and yet it felt like a lifetime ago. Already, the guns seemed like toys and the seatbelts part of an amusement park ride. Dragon SWAT didn’t need vans. Why drive when one could fly?

  But she had an answer for that. There was something about being squished together when they took hard turns, about the nervous chatter, and about the way everyone’s gazes sometimes fell to the guns on the rack on the back of the vehicle. It built comradery in a way that flight didn’t. Flying was an independent action, a time to get lost in one’s own head, whereas riding along in the back of a van was inherently human. Flying definitely wasn’t human.

  They arrived at the hotel.

  “All right,” Drew said and strode from the driver’s seat to the back of the van. “Butters and Beanpole, I want you on the rear entrance. Make yourselves invisible but I need to know if our girl or anyone else goes in or out. I don’t care what they look like, I need to know about it. We’ll determine who is a suspect later.”

  “Yes, sir,” the sniper said, and his spotter nodded.

  “Hernandez, Rookie, you’re on the front. I want you to go in ahead of us and get a drink at the bar, then keep your eyes on the situation. I don’t think our target will get a drink, but I don’t want anyone to see a police presence in the lobby. Not yet.”

  “Are you saying you want me to get a drink and flirt with the Rookie?” Hernandez smiled.

  “Is that a problem?” Drew asked.

  “No, sir!” the Rookie said quickly, and everyone laughed. They’d run hundreds of missions together, and yet nerves were still high at the start of a mission.

  Kristen was relieved that it wasn’t only her, although she did feel palpably afraid in a way she normally didn’t. Since she’d discovered what she was, her steel skin had been armor not only against guns but against fear, doubt, and hesitation. It allowed her to act when others had to think. Now, she would go into a situation where turning to steel might very well endanger her further.

  “That means the Wonderkid and the Steel Dragon are with me,” Drew said.

  “You always get the best picks!” Keith complained and sounded like the kid chosen last for kickball.

  “Do you want one of them instead of me?” Hernandez raised an eyebrow.

  “No, ma’am.”

  No chuckles followed this time. They were too close to the action.

  “Kristen, I don’t want you on point. That honor goes to Jim.”

  “What? This is my case, and I’m a damn dragon. Why shouldn’t I lead this?”

  “Three reasons. One, because she might recognize you. If she has a camera or some kind of magic shit, it makes sense to put one of us first. Two, we don’t have any bulletproof armor for you. Three, your reflexes are antithetical to every damn person I’ve ever met.”

  “They are not—” she protested before he cut her off.

  “Yes, they damn well are. You run toward bullets. People don’t do that.”

  “I thought about that, sir,” Jim said and loosened his bulletproof vest. “We might not have brought enough vests, but she can wear mine.”

  Drew shook his head but Kristen spoke first, “No fucking way, Jim! That’s out of the damn question.”

  “You could die,” he said and continued to loosen the armor.

  “Without that vest, you will die. I’ll be fine unless she hits me with a dragon bullet, which she doesn’t have an unlimited supply of, obviously. You’ll be dead if she hits you with any bullet.”

  “I’ll be fine—”

  “I can heal from wounds in minutes, Jim—minutes. You’re not giving me that vest.”

  “You’re the target, Kristen. This is basics. We protect you.”

  “I won’t take anyone’s damn vest and that’s final. If you don’t stop unbuckling it, I will flex my aura and make you put it back on.”

  “I thought you didn’t like doing that to your friends,” he responded.

  “I don’t. That’s why I’m threatening you with it before I do it.”

  Jim sighed but he began to buckle his armor on again. Once he’d finished, Drew nodded and they went in a few minutes after Keith and Hernandez.

  “Hey, I got this, all right?” the Wonderkid said.

  Drew and Kristen shrugged and let him approach the desk. He plastered a big phony smile on his face.

  “Well, hi there,” he said and sounded as friendly as he did when he spoke to the press. “My friend is staying here but didn’t give me her room number.” He flashed a photo of the woman taken from the surveillance footage.

  “That’s nice,” the woman said. “If you’d like to wait at the bar, she should be down soon.”

  “Really?” Jim said.

  “She’s lying,” Kristen said. She could sense the woman’s emotional state enough to know that she wouldn’t give anything in response to Jim’s phony act.

  Drew stepped forward and flashed a badge. “I’m with Detroit PD. SWAT. We have reason to believe this woman is a terrorist.”

  “Oh…uh, yes, sir, I’m sorry, sir. She checked in a few days ago.”

  “Is she here right now?” Drew asked.

  “I can’t say, sir. We don’t keep track of all of our guests.”

  “Can we have a key to her room, please?” Kristen asked.

  “No, ma’am! That’s against policy. I can’t simply…” The receptionist trailed off as the dragon flexed her aura. This woman needed to be a little afraid and to understand that the team was there to help her. She didn’t like manipulating people, but it was an ability she had and without a doubt, if the woman who’d killed Windfire had any such ability, she’d have used it without conscience.

  “What were you saying about giving us that key?” she asked again.

  “Its…um, right here, I think.” The woman stood and retrieved a key card, ran it through a scanner, and handed it to her.

  “Thank you. Room number?”

  “Fourteen-oh-nine. Fourteenth floor. Take the elevator, go left, and follow the signs. Are we in some kind of danger? Does the hotel need to be evacuated?”

  Kristen was about to answer, “Hell yes, it should,”
but Drew caught her arm and shook his head. “Everything should be fine, ma’am. We’re only here to ask her a few questions. Nothing too major. Your cooperation should make this go smoothly.”

  The woman nodded, noticeably relieved.

  “But,” Kristen said, not wanting to scare her but feeling like she had no choice, “if you feel a flash of fear like you need to get out of here and you see that other people seem scared too, sound the alarm and go, do you understand me?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The three left the desk without further discussion.

  “What was that about?” Jim asked as they moved to the elevator.

  “How else can we communicate that the hotel is in danger besides my aura? If it seems like we’re all at risk, I can make everyone in this place feel like they need to get out.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Drew said as the elevator doors opened.

  They stepped inside and rode to the fourteenth floor. In silence, they strode through quiet hallways and passed only a man in a robe and a swimsuit, no doubt headed to the rooftop pool despite the cold. A few minutes later, they found the room.

  “I’ll open the door. Jim, you go in, Kristen right, and I’ll take left. If you see hostiles, disable them. I don’t know what mages can do but I’m sure it’s far less if they have a bullet in the leg.”

  The other two nodded.

  Drew opened the door.

  Jim rushed in. Kristen moved quickly behind him, checked the bathroom, and found it empty. “Clear!” she shouted.

  “Clear!” shouted Jim as well.

  “There’s no one here,” said Drew.

  She stepped from the bathroom into an empty hotel room. It was a fairly simple place to secure, merely a standard hotel room with a bathroom. There were no places to hide.

  “I’ll keep an eye on the door,” the team leader said. “You two see what’s here.”